175 jobs to be created as pharmaceutical firm Abbott separates its research division

Thursday, January 03, 2013

By John Walsh, Business Correspondent

The giant pharmaceutical company Abbott has hived off its research division into a new business called AbbVie, which will employ 400 people in Ireland with a further 175 jobs to be created by 2015.

AbbVie is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and had its first day of trading yesterday.

Overall Abbott employs 3,200 people in Ireland across 11 sites. AbbVie will now account for 400 of these employees in its manufacturing plants in Cork and Sligo and its commercial office in Dublin.

Abbott announced last February that it will be creating 175 new jobs over the next few years through an €85m new investment in the company’s manufacturing site in Sligo. These new jobs will be part of the new AbbVie company.

Abbott shareholders are entitled to one share of AbbVie’s common stock.

The company announced in October that it was separating into two independent companies.

AbbVie will be a research-based biopharmaceuticals company specialising in immunology and virology with a number of new drugs in the pipeline.

According to the 2011 accounts, it has 20 compounds in phase two and phase three clinical trials. It expects regulatory approval for 15 of these between 2013 and 2017.

Overall Abbott had sales of $22bn in 2010 with operations in 170 companies. AbbVie accounted for $18bn of these sales.

AbbVie has earmarked $2.45bn for research and development in 2013.

“We look forward to working together with patients and healthcare partners to meet the healthcare needs in Ireland.

“AbbVie is a new type of company, a biopharmaceutical company.

“We are built on a 125-year heritage of research and innovation, with a renewed focus on meeting the needs of patients. AbbVie is committed to finding new treatments that address some of the world’s most serious health issues.”

Jim O’Regan will be AbbVie’s site director in Sligo and Denis Broderick will be head of the new company’s Cork site. Both men have been with the company for over 20 years.